We sold our Grand Banks Trawler and began spending several months a year in southwest Florida at a strange little place known as Pine Island. It's an unusual place because Pine Island is an island "inside" the barrier islands of Sanibel and Captiva in San Carlos Bay. It's a real Florida island without high rise condos, without a sandy beach, and without any pretentious character. Yes, such a place really does exist ! Sorry I'm not at liberty to share the latitude and longitude.
We purchased a little outboard big enough to take some sea but small enough to push off a sandbar after the tide leaves you stranded. This picture is just off the beautiful sandy beach of nearby North Captiva Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The predominant wind is from the east and therefore, the Gulf of Mexico beach on this leeward shore is as smooth as a baby's butt.
Our home is on a canal with a bulkhead large enough to hold the small outboard as well as our super little Cape Cod sailing catboat-the "NoJibe". This is the largest undeveloped island in the state and resembles a place largely forgotten by time. St. James City located on the far south end of the island, has one very small grocery store, two boat yards, one church, a restaurant or two, and FIVE bars. Suffice to say that this place is "laid back".
Here is a manatee-cow and her calf- off the backend of the sailboat. Momma found the underside hull shape "just right" to assist her with some degree of stability as the youngster nursed from behind the mother's front flippers.
On our way to Doc Ford's Restaurant, our boat passes Marker 5 with a beautiful Bald Eagle, just taking it easy on his perch from above.
Running up the Matlacha (matt-lu-shay) Channel, you'll find Bert's (beer joint) a 75-year old-time hangout featuring grouper sandwiches and real steel pan reggae music off the back deck.
And running north up Pine Island Sound, you'll find Cabbage Key. With "dollar bill" lined walls and famous paradise cheeseburgers. This is the Doll House cabin-available for rent and comes with your own private pier and boat dock. Then, the gourmet meals available only-at-night are absolutely wonderful!
But my all time favorite pastime is to enjoy a cup of wine while sailing back and forth off the south end of the island in San Carlos Bay. Our catboat is modeled after the late 1800's working boats that graced the waters of New England with their single sail on a single mast set well forward on the bow. We have a little single Diesel engine and we sound and sort-of lookalike the "African Queen" when heading back up the canals toward home late in the evenings.
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